If you want to know how to memorize things more easily than you can right now, it’s probably because you have lots of stuff you need to remember. (Duh!)

Whether it’s a presentation, the answers to an exam or simply something from your daily life, the following tips will help you remember more clearly.

Just make sure you actually apply them!

Don’t think that just because you read this and then do one of the things I suggest for a few hours, that you’re suddenly a memory genius.

Add them into the way you learn and you’ll be memorizing easily in no time.

How to Memorize Things with All Your Senses

Use As Many Senses As Possible

The more that science discovers about the brain, the more we realise that we learn and remember things through all our senses.

The problem with a lot of methods of learning is that they get you to remember raw facts. This uses only one sense (vision), where you read them on the page and hope they stay in your memory.

Below are some ideas on how to memorize things using the five senses. The more of these senses you apply to the thing you want to remember, the more likely you are to remember it.

Try these:

Hearing: Record yourself speaking the information or facts. You could even do it as if telling a story, doing the voices of all the people or things that feature in the ‘story’ of your work. Turn it into an MP3 (there are tutorials on this on YouTube) and put it on your phone or music device. Listen to it repeatedly, when doing other things like washing up or getting ready to go out. This way you make the most of your time and use another of your senses (hearing) to memorize the information. Also, what sounds are there in the facts you want to learn?

Vision: Create visual images where possible to memorize facts. Some people suggest writing down the information on flash cards. I prefer to draw simple images. This means you’ll see pictures to trigger memories, which are often easier to recall. If you have some key facts to remember, make them part of the image. Draw the images, and create a storyboard that shows things happening in order. Look at it daily, perhaps as you’re listening to your audio. This technique alone is powerful when combined with the Loci method explained in this video.

Smell and Taste: How to memorize things using smell and taste? Well, this one is harder to achieve as it’s not as obvious, but it can be done… Using your imagination. If you have to remember where the Great Fire of 1666 started in London, imagine the smell of cakes or bread and butter pudding… This makes it easier to recall that the fire started at a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane. What associations can you make between facts you want to recall and your sense of smell or taste?

Touch: Here’s an interesting idea. Have an object that you take in your hands as you memorize certain things. Then, when you need to recall it, remember the thing you were holding and the fact will come back to you more easily. This type of association is powerful stuff… Here’s how to use this for a series of things you want to remember:

Let’s say there are 6 things to remember. Get six small objects that are very different from each other. Lay them out in a line. If they’re related to the things you want to remember, great. If not, no problem.

Pick up the first object and read/listen to the first thing you want to remember. Put the first object down and pick up the second one, then read or remember the second thing. Go down the line until you’re finished.

Now, practice a few times, going back over each one without looking at any notes. When the time comes to remember the facts, see the row of objects in your mind and as you look at each one, remember the facts you thought of when holding that object.

Here’s one last tip that works especially well…

Have a memorizing session shortly before you go to sleep.

Sleep is proven to be a great memory enhancer. It relaxes your conscious mind (which essentially switches off) and allows your subconscious to process what you’ve learned.

So, there you go! That’s how to memorize things with all your senses.

As always, let us know in the comments section below if you have any techniques that you use. We’d love to hear them.

I'm James Gladwell, chief contributor and editor of SmartMemoryPower.com. I'm fascinated by the human mind and I set this site up in order to help people increase their memory power, while I learned how to improve mine. Feel free to leave a comment on the site and let me know how you think I can make the site better.